THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 21, 1995 TAG: 9501210182
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Banding together, Virginia's college presidents dared oppose Gov. George F. Allen's thrust to skewer their schools' budgets.
That their stand took nerve was evident in what happened to Maj. Gen. John W. Knapp, superintendent of Virginia Military Institute.
As head of the Council of Presidents, Knapp was due to lead the charge for more dough in the teeth of Allen's proposed cuts. But he was ordered not to attend Thursday's hearing of the Senate Finance Committee's education panel.
He sent regrets to Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews. In a letter to his peers, he said that ``on instructions from the rector of my board'' he would not be at the meeting nor at one next week before House members.
Thus was stifled the rallying cry of VMI - ``The Institute will be heard from today!'' - which preceded the charge by cadets against Yankee guns at New Market.
Into the breach stepped Dr. Timothy J. Sullivan, president of the College of William and Mary.
``Unless vital installments are made today to sustain this financial stake in Virginia's future, our universities of tomorrow will resemble today's in name but in little else,'' Sullivan declared.
Despite a heavy drain on resources, the colleges have made economies by restructuring and reallocating funds for five years.
But that process left them vulnerable to ``smash and grab cuts,'' said George Johnson, president of George Mason University.
A president would shift funds from services to classroom needs, and bureaucrats in Richmond, seeing that, would say he must not have needed the money - and cut the budget again.
``Common sense says that if you keep cutting budgets like that, restructuring and productivity is going to stop,'' Johnson said.
The strength of the Virginia system has been in the autonomy of each institution functioning in its own rhythms and setting.
Though the system never got more than average dollar support for higher education, it rose above the average in quality. Johnson pleaded that the autonomy continue to be honored and respected.
``The very future of Virginia is at stake,'' he said.
The college presidents, Andrews said, ``were positive and clear that if we don't help higher education in this critical time, it will go backwards and lose all the progress it has made in Virginia.
``The subcommittee members realized that, and each one - Democrats and Republicans - spoke positively and expressed an intent to help restore as many cuts as they could.''
Sen. Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk, called for the sort of groundswell that swept Virginia in 1968 after he and Andrews introduced measures for a drive to improve schools. Gov. Mills Godwin took up the baton.
Now Virginia is 46th among the states in support of schools and second, behind Vermont, in tuition charged to students. by CNB